Napoli’s green shoots did not bear fruit against Milan

Date:

The green shoots given by Napoli, who added seven of the previous nine points, did not bear fruit at San Siro, where rivals Barcelona in the Champions League round of 16 (the first leg on February 21 in Italy) lost 1-0 against a Milan that knows how to get the most out of it with Theo Hernández’s goal.

A sixth win in seven days allows the Rossoneri to consolidate their third place and be a point behind Juventus, who host Udinese tomorrow, while Naples’ eighth loss In Serie A, they are relegated to ninth place, seven points from the 2024-25 Champions League positions.

Mazzarri changed the system

Walter Mazzarri changed Napoli’s characteristic 4-2-3-1 formation in the first half for a 3-5-1-1, Leo Ostigard was introduced as the third central defender, with Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Pasquale Mazzocchi as wingers and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia behind Gio Simeone at forward.

in the middle Mazzarri brought back Piotr Zielinski, a regular who wasn’t even called up the day before against Verona after refusing to renew his contract. Not that the Pole has changed his mind but the Naples coach cannot do without a key player in his scheme.

Naples started well but Milan were unforgiving

The truth is that Napoli’s performance was promising because they had the ball and had a good chance to advance. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia pours one of his characteristics on the right and in his low middle Simeone finished it from point-blank range. The ball didn’t go in by a miracle (10′).


Napoli continued to dominate and lacked the depth of their game against a dense Milan but they scored on their first visit. The Rafael Leao-Theo Hernández connection worked perfectly again. The Portuguese, near the left wing, saw the rise of his teammate as inside and put a good ball into the space which the French took advantage of to beat Pierluigi Gollini on his way out (25′).

Back to 4-2-3-1 at half time

On the next play Leao tried a shot from outside the area that forced Gollini to show off, but the first half did not provide any more noteworthy actions. The game was flat and Naples failed to do any damage in a defense that lost Davide Calabria due to injury in the 37th minute, Alessandro Florenzi replaced him.

At half-time, Mazzarri decided to complete his change of system and, with the match score, he removed Ostigard to bring in Matteo Politano is looking for more offensive weight.

A more open second part

He achieved it in the second half with a change of scenery. The game is more open, with attacks on both goals. Florenzi was the first to score with a shot from outside the area blocked in two by Gollini (48′).

But a Napoli determined to score became more as the minutes ticked by. Simeone steals the ball from Ismaël Bennacer and his howitzer narrowly misses the goal (55′). Politano hit both with a threaded shot (60′).

Jovic’s letter doesn’t work this time

Leao found more space to show off his brilliant drives and with one of them he also came close to scoring (70′). Eventually Stefano Pioli played the Luka Jovic card but this time the ex-Madrid player was indecisive like in previous games.

Milan suffered against Naples’ push. He lacked success and clarity in his attacks against Barça’s rivals, but in the final moments the post saved the ‘Rossineri’ when the defender Jan Carlo Simic deflected against the post from his goal a cross from Jesper Lindstrom and with the continuation of Mike Maignan took a shot from Politano (88′).

Without Osimhen, there is no blow

Milan never took control of the game, but knew how to defend Theo Hernández’s goal against a Naples team that lacked punch in its scorer’s absence Victor Osimhen, who at the same time lost the Africa Cup final with Nigeria against Ivory Coast.

match lineup

Build: 4231 Series A playing field
16
2
19
4
24
46
Eleven
7
9
8
10
95
22
30
5
13
55
99
twenty
18
77
68

Giuseppe Meazza Stadium

Visit to Naples

16Mike Maignan

Pierluigi Gollini95

2David Calabria

36′

Giovanni DiLorenzo22

19Theo Hernandez

24′

95′

Pasquale Mazzocchi30

75′

4Ismaël Bennacer

65′

John Jesus5

84′


89′

24Simon Kjær

65′

Amir Rrahmani13

46Matteo Gabbia

Leo Ostigard55

Four. five’

ElevenChristian Pulisic

80′

Frank Anguissa99

7Yacine Adli

Piotr Zielinskitwenty

75′

9Olivier Giroud

79′

Giovanni Simeone18

54′

8Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia77

10Rafael Leao

Stanislav Lobotka68

Home AC Milan

Replacements

Visit to Naples

57Marco Sportiello

Nikita Contini14

83Antonio Mirante

Nathan3

42Alessandro Florenzi

36′

Mathias Olivera17

75′

74Alex Jimenez

80′

Hamed Traore8

82Jan-Carlo Simic

65′

Maybe Jens24

38Filippo Terracciano

Jesper Lindström29

75′

80Yunus Musah

65′

Leander Dendoncker32

81Victor Eletu

Matteo Politanotwenty-one

Four. five’

fifteenLuka Jovic

79′

Cyril Ngonge26

89′

17Noah Okafor

Giacomo Raspadori81

54′

Home AC Milan

coach

Visit to Naples

Stefano Pioli

Walter Mazzarri

Source: La Verdad

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related

Cause still unclear – explosion in the ammunition factory: injured employees

A person was seriously injured in an explosion in...

“Social Administration” – Pre -Christmas Termination again canceled

A 62-year-old Vorarlberger, who had worked in the company...

Governments of Central and Vasco propose a joint response to the homologation of titles

María Ubarretxena and Juan Ignacio Pérez explained the situation...